The Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication evolved from the Project for Advanced Research in Global Communication and succeeds what was formerly known as the Center for Global Communication Studies.

Stanley Lubman, Berkeley Law School, University of California; Senior Fellow, Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law Professor Lubman reviews the problems that law reform has encountered since the millennium, especially emphasizing the continuing tightness of control by the Party-State over the courts, the extensive power of local governments over local courts and the enforcement of central government laws and regulations (e.g., in failing to control food safety and hampering the application of environmental regulations), and the lack of improvement in the criminal process. He will also call attention to improvements in administrative law.

The debate over the Hungarian media legislation goes beyond immediate concerns over the possible erosion of media freedom in Hungary: the laws pose a clear challenge to the established European framework for the protection of democratic principles, values and rights. Hungary’s case therefore raises serious concerns over whether, and how, these fundamental rights can be safeguarded and maintained on both the domestic and pan-European levels.

Tunisia is a clear case in the Arab world in which the liberalization process already introduced by Ben Ali did not bring neither economic competition nor political and social pluralism. The challenges now being faced in order to guarantee the developement of a true, open and pluralistic public sphere are extremely complicated.